Your Customers Want To Serve Themselves

Three to five years ago, two-thirds of customers said they primarily used the telephone for customer service interactions. Today, less than one-third do, and that number is shrinking generation-by-generation.

The reality is – today’s customers want to serve themselves.

Think about it - self-service is not a new concept – it has been tried, tested and proven in many industries. We use the self-service check-in at airports all the time, we carry out our own transfers and payments on banking apps, and we use self-service touch screens in fast food restaurants. There are likely dozens of examples of self-service in your daily and weekly routine that are so normal to you, you don’t even think of them as being self-service activities.

Going forward, more and more industries will adopt self-service methods that put the customer back in the driving seat.

How can Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) benefit from self-service?

By investing in the right self-service tools, OEMs can provide their customers with accurate and relevant information at their fingertips, ensuring customers can find quick solutions to their problems.

Through advancements in technology, OEMs can ensure that customers view up-to-date parts manuals, so they are ordering the correct part every time.

Critically, many OEMs supply industries that are reliant on up-time to maintain production targets, and self-service parts ordering ensures 24 hour availability.

The consistency and reliability that self-service provides for the customer cannot be underestimated, and these benefits are highly likely to contribute to brand loyalty for potential future equipment and machinery purchases.

In the future, OEMs will adopt self-service as the new normal. The market leaders are adopting self-service now.

The move towards self-service will be driven by companies who struggle to meet their customers’ increasing expectations and demands at scale for reliable, quick, and efficient customer service through traditional means, and by arguably the most important factor of all - customers increasingly wanting to solve their own problems through a self-service system.